Die singulation denotes a process of isolating individual semiconductor chips or semiconductor dies from a semiconductor wafer. A dicing process accomplished by scribing and breaking, e.g., by mechanical sawing or laser cutting separates the semiconductor dies along kerf lines. After dicing, individual semiconductor chips are typically mounted onto chip carriers and/or encapsulated in chip housings. DBG (dice before grind) firstly incompletely dices a wafer by using a half-cut dicer that forms dicing streets between chip regions on a wafer front side. A depth of the dicing streets is equal to or greater than a final target thickness of the semiconductor chips. A stiff carrier member fixed to the diced surface stabilizes the half-diced wafer during a grinding process that thins the wafer from the undiced surface to the final target thickness. The grinding process exposes the dicing streets and completes separation of the semiconductor chips. A flexible pick-up tape is attached onto the side of the semiconductor chips opposite to the grinding tape, the latter being removed in the following. The pick-up tape may hold the separated semiconductor chips in place until a handling apparatus or operator picks up the semiconductor chips for further processing, e.g., for packaging or placement.
There is a need to improve the yield of processes for die singulation such as DBG.